Malda (West Bengal): The second wave of Coronavirus has crippled the lives across West Bengal. The score of people facing the Covid or Post-covid complications is increasing day by day. The situation has gradually made many understand the importance of taking precautions and many are queuing up to take vaccines as a part of the precaution. In North Bengal, the rate of vaccination in both 18-44 years and 45years and above is quite satisfactory.
But, this awareness is posing another problem for one of the premier medical institutes in Malda district, the Malda Medical College and Hospital. With more people taking vaccines, the number of blood donors has steadily declined, resulting in a near dry situation in the central blood bank of the hospital.
With a dwindling number of blood donation camps, the hospital authorities are staring at an uncertain future about the large number of patients who need a regular blood transfusion as well as for those patients who need immediate surgeries.
“Being a premier medical institute, Malda Medical College always witnesses a constant pressure of patients. Not only from the Malda district but also from Uttar and Dakshin Dinajpur districts as well as from neighbouring Bihar and as far as from Bangladesh. With the international borders close by, many patients from Bangladesh tend to get their treatment done here. And blood is the key to many of their treatments.
The situation today is such that we are urging the relatives of patients to scout for donors themselves and then get the treatment. Many donors are shying away saying they have either contracted Covid-19 and have undergone treatment or they have taken the vaccine dose. If any major incident happens where patients need blood on an emergency basis, we simply do not know what to do,” said a senior physician at the government-run medical facility on condition of anonymity.